Encore careers can make the world a better place

Q: I am in my early 60s and trying to figure out what to do next. I’ve been in public relations, then had a franchise business and just became bored. I am ready for something more meaningful that will also pay me. I cannot afford to be a full-time volunteer. Do you have any suggestions?

— A.H.

A: The timing of your question is perfect. I just attended the invitational inaugural leadership institute sponsored by Encore.org, a San Francisco think tank that promotes encore careers — ones that combine purpose, passion and a paycheck for the greater good.

Currently there are 9 million people in the U.S. with an encore career and 31 million more interested in pursuing one.

For the past seven years, Encore.org has awarded the Purpose Prize to individuals who are “changing the world in what was once seen as the ‘leftover’ years,” according to Marc Freedman, chief executive and founder of Encore.org. This year’s prizes were awarded to seven social entrepreneurs selected from 1,000 nominees 60 and older who have improved their communities and the world.

Two winners received $100,000 and five received $25,000 each for innovation and their extraordinary contributions. Funding was provided by Atlantic Philanthropies, the John Templeton Foundation and Symetra.

The stories of Purpose Prize winners are inspirational. Here are a few.

• Ysabel Duron, a TV anchorwoman, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. While undergoing cancer treatment, she was haunted by how few Latinos she had seen receiving treatment. She asked herself, “Where do Spanish-speaking cancer victims get help?” Note that cancer is the leading cause of Latino deaths in the U.S. After a 42-year television career Duron founded Latinas Contra Cancer (Latinas Against Cancer). Her organization provides education and essential services to low-income Spanish speakers with cancer — in Spanish. Latinas Contra Cancer has worked with 3,000 men and women resulting in more than 300 preventive cancer screenings and helping an additional 310 through the health care and treatment process.

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• Vicki Thomas, a successful public relations and marketing executive, realized something was missing in her life. When she saw a CNN news story in 2010 about injured Iraq veterans Dale Beatty and John Gallina, she realized what was missing: a higher purpose. The veterans’ story evoked painful memories of her teenage years during the Vietnam War — the returning caskets and announcements of former students who were killed in action.

Beatty and Gallina were committed to give back to veterans like themselves and created the nonprofit Purple Heart Homes. Thomas knew she could help and raised millions of dollars, increasing revenue 600 percent the first year. She also developed an innovative program matching veterans with foreclosed homes donated by banks. As a result, home modification is offered to older veterans free of charge. Thomas won the Purpose Prize for Future Promise, sponsored by Symetra.

• Elizabeth Huttinger of Pasadena is a longtime international development consultant. She was skeptical when a biologist told her he had a cure for the fourth-largest parasitic disease in the world. It’s called schistosomiasis, or snail fever, and it afflicts 240 million people in 76 countries with diarrhea, seizures, liver and bladder cancer and sometimes death. How to get rid of the snails? Provide the crustacean that eats them — prawns. Projet Crevette (the Prawn Project) was spawned. Huttinger devoted her encore career to restoring the prawn population in Africa’s Senegal River, controlling the parasite and creating jobs through prawn farming. Within six months, Projet Crevette reversed an epidemic that ravaged the region for 30 years.

Not everyone can be a Purpose Prize winner. Yet we each have the potential to do something that will make this world a better place while providing us with a purpose and a paycheck, too. The challenge is finding the path. Here are some suggestions. Read “The Encore Career Handbook” (Workman Publishing, $15.95) by Marci Alboher and go to two useful websites: www.encore.org and http://lifereimagined.aarp.org/#.

Legacy is often thought of as something we leave. Not according to Freedman. He suggests “We need to live that legacy — rather than leave it.”

A.H., thank you for your good question. Best wishes in finding that encore career; then pursue it with fervor.

Send email to Helen Dennis at Helendenn@aol.com, or go to www.facebook.com/SuccessfulAgingCommunity.

About the Author

Helen Dennis is nationally recognized leader on issues of aging, employment and retirement with academic, corporate and non profit experience. She has received numerous awards for her university teaching at USC’s Andrus Gerontology Center and for her contributions to the field of aging and the community. Editor of two books, author of over 50 articles, frequent speaker and weekly columnist on Successful Aging for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, she has assisted over 10,000 employees to prepare for the non-financial aspects of their retirement. In her volunteer life, she has served as president of five nonprofit organizations. Fully engaged in the field of aging, she was a delegate to the 2005 White House Conference on Aging and is co-author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller, "Project Renewment®: The First Retirement Model for Career Women." Helen has extensive experience with the media including Prime Time, NPR, network news, the Wall Street Journal, Sacramento Bee and Christian Science Monitor. She recently was the recipient of the excellence in literary arts award from the Torrance Cultural Arts Commission. Reach the author at helendenn@aol.com
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